The Calusa Herpetological Society Of Southwest Florida

Thursday, May 1, 2014 - 7:00 pm

SPEAKER & TOPIC:  Tonight's speaker is George L. Heinrich of Heinrich Services and the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust. George is a field biologist and environmental educator specializing in Florida reptiles. The title of his presentation is "Conserving a Remnant Population of Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus): Land Management Challenges at an Urban Nature Preserve in Central Florida". His company, Heinrich Ecological Services, is based in St. Petersburg and conducts wildlife surveys and research, natural history programming, and nature-based tours. A graduate of Memphis State University, his interests  include southeastern upland and brackish wetland ecosystems, conservation challenges facing Florida's non-marine turtles, and the role of education in conserving herpetofauna. He has worked for a number of years on the conservation of gopher tortoises and has studied the ecology and conservation needs of diamondback terrapins as part of a University of North Florida research team since 1995. Recent collaborative projects have focused on two emydids, the diamondback terrapin (research on mortality in crab pots and a distributional study in the Big Bend region of Florida) and the Suwannee cooter (impacts of take for human consumption and boat strikes). George has served twice as co-chair of the Gopher Tortoise Council and is the founding executive director of the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust. He has received a number of awards from state and regional NGO's for his conservation work, the most recent being the Golden LEEF Award for Outstanding Contribution to Florida Environmental Education from the League of Environmental Educators in Florida.